CHANGING MY U JOINTS AND HAVE A ?

What U joints would you guys recommended? i need to replace the axle u joints and the drive shaft u joints. I have a 90 xj. let me know what you recommend.

Back in the day when I only wheeled 3 times a year I used Napa without any problems. Now that I have more time to go I use Spicer on everything.

Thats what i was thinking. Thanks.

make sure you get the correct ones. depending on whether you have the vacuum axle up front or not you may have the lager u-joints.

Spicer.

For the front driveshaft, if you plan on changing that "ball and spring" find an already assembled kit that has a new yoke with a new ball and spring already in it (my local NAPA never heard of this, nor was able to find it in the parts list, I know it exists online though). The price should be about the same or actually even less than just a new ball and spring. I wasn't able to get the old ball out without trashing the yoke. Nor was i able to properly seat the new ball, so I had to opt for a new yoke/ball/spring.

I've heard missed things about this...some writeups online have claimed "just pop out the old ball and put the new one in, simple and done" while actual driveshaft shops have told me a complete yoke/ball/spring replacement is what is intended and that the ball is not suppose to come out.

I agree with Spicer also, although people still like NAPA's Precision stuff. Denny's has decent prices http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/c457_cv_parts.html

For the drive shaft, get the u joints that are greased from the caps it makes it much easier!

+1 for Spicer u-joints.

1990JEEPXJ said:

make sure you get the correct ones. depending on whether you have the vacuum axle up front or not you may have the lager u-joints.

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not vacuum vs non vacuum, all ABS equipped XJs will have 297/760 sized joints while all non ABS equipped XJs made 94 and earlier (iirc) will have 260 sized joints. Since the shafts swap and the axles swap and it is a used vehicle you have no idea if it is set up how it left the factory, so measure the U-joint cap diameters. 1 1/16" = 260 size, 1 3/16" = 297/760 size. The 5-760X is much more durable than the 297, so make sure you get them (or the greasable equivalent) instead of 297s... unless your shafts are 260 size, in which case you either should get new 260s or upgrade shafts and get 760s.

kastein said:

not vacuum vs non vacuum, all ABS equipped XJs will have 297/760 sized joints while all non ABS equipped XJs made 94 and earlier (iirc) will have 260 sized joints. Since the shafts swap and the axles swap and it is a used vehicle you have no idea if it is set up how it left the factory, so measure the U-joint cap diameters. 1 1/16" = 260 size, 1 3/16" = 297/760 size. The 5-760X is much more durable than the 297, so make sure you get them (or the greasable equivalent) instead of 297s... unless your shafts are 260 size, in which case you either should get new 260s or upgrade shafts and get 760s.

Click to expand...

:doh:. what i said didnt come out right. you are correct.

brainfarts happen... no worries :gee:

To add to that, if you want to keep the vac disconnect (why?) but upgrade to larger U-joints, you can use the outer passenger side shaft (the one from the disconnect to the U-joint, along with the stub shaft inside the unit bearing) from a 95 YJ, and the driver side shaft from any ABS equipped 94-down or any 95-up XJ/YJ. This makes your spares harder to find though, so I'd just eliminate the disconnect (there are kits available.)

wow thanks for all the info guys.

I'd run spicer for everything except for the bottom ujoints on the driveshafts, probably just the front too. Basically a built in fuse. Easy to drive home in 2wd, hard to drive home with a blown up front end, popped off ball joints or whatever befalls you.

The Double Carden joint, some call it a CV joint since technically it is a CV joint but not the '5/6 balls' kind you see in birfields and whatnot, is two joints with a center peice that ya, isn't designed to be servicable by us lowly humans without the right tools.


And for what it's worth the new non-vac disco front ends are all 297 aka 1310 ujoints whereas the older non-abs vac disco shafts ran the 260 joint (297 on the ABS model as was mentioned above). There are plenty of reasons to stick with the vac-disco housing, one of which is the cast upper passenger control arm mount.. well maybe there's one reason

you can install a seal and pop in the fulltime/non-disco shafts in a disco housing too if you do some searching..

oh and FYI the c-clip on the front ujoints is on the inside.. pull that off before you start pounding away for half an hour